Youth Books

The book is inspiring, instructional and helpful. What a refreshing book! I have recommended it to anyone and everyone who works with youth. It is scripturally grounded and easy to read. Quite often, ministry is about knowing and recognizing when the window of opportunity occurs to help others experience God. It is also about how to create the windows of opportunity. Then a leader must know how to make this happen often without being manipulative! Twists of Faith will give you guidance to make this happen. It will also encourage you to listen to what is happening at the core of each youth in your life. Twists of Faith puts to practice the skills Jesus used in His ministry. It's about building relationships and being a spiritual mentor. This book is perfect if an adult in youth ministry wants to go beyond the silly games and goofy get togethers. It will minister to you, as you minister to the youth in your life. It is a wonderful tool for building an intentional ministry of growing faithful disciples of Christ. It will help you find your theological compass and help you see that we are in the business of tending to each others' souls.

This is an amazing book! The stories express the core of some issues teens deal with, while being moving and soul touching. The opportunity to deepen your own faith and spiritual practices while learning to help youth do the same is so very valuable. This combination is really helpful. The second section of the book includes some wonderful exercises and activities to help youth deal with issues in new ways. It grapples with some of the hard stuff youth are faced with these days. I feel this is one of the top two books currently available to help us with teen spirituality in everyday life. I highly recommend it!

When I first saw Twists of Faith, I thought, "I wish I'd had this book 30 years ago -- it would have helped my ministry so much." This is a practical book of real helps in dealing with youth at crisis points in their lives. It's rooted in Scripture and faith, and also in understanding of who youth are and how their faith can play out in their daily lives. It is helpful, not just theoretical, and one that every person who works with youth -- or who cares about youth -- should read and take to heart.

Most youth ministry books talk about the importance of helping teens grow in faith. Unlike most, this book really helps you know how to do it. It is written in two sections. The first is more about the leader: the importance of recognizing moments when youth are most likely to grow in faith, our fears, and how to prepare ourselves as "spiritual leaders." The second section helps us with detailed information in eight types of faith forming opportunities. The authors do not teach the art of psychological manipulation - they teach the art of listening to youth and helping them listen to God. This is a very helpful book for anyone who takes the ministry of faith growth seriously.

This is not a book to read in one or two days, it is filled with information and details never known before. It gives you an altered view of the famous diva. It must have taken the author years of dedicated work to interview all persons that possibly had some information of value and to go through a lot of documents and newspaper reviews. In fact this is almost like an academic dissertation, but written in an understandable way. As a great Callas fan I can not put this bok away for more than a very short time, I leave other things behind to be able to return to the biography and all fascinating facts revealed.

This is by far the finest biography I have ever read of Maria Callas. So much of her life is still surrounded by myth (mostly propogated by herself and her hagiographers) that a fascinating, scholarly, non-sensationalistic book is truly special.
This book mostly covers Callas's early years in New York and Greece. Far from being an "ugly duckling" the photos and descriptions of Mary/Maria in this book suggest an attractive, ambitious young soprano who by the time she left Greece already had several lovers and admirers. Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis somehow managed to interview every surviving neighbor, student, singer, soldier, and friend who knew Callas and her family "way back when" in Athens. He also did the impossible and got Callas's sister Jackie to speak candidly of her much more famous sister. The stories do not always match exactly, and Petsalis-Diomidis is remarkably sensitive to the viewpoints of all the sources. He is careful not to sensationalize anything. Even though the details are often horrifying (including Jackie's essentially becoming a semi-prostitute to support the family and Litsa's crude attempts to prostitute both her daughters) the tone of the book is always scholarly and respectful.
Maria Callas, even in her early years as a teenaged soprano in the Greek National Opera, tended to arouse strong feelings, both positive and negative. To her "enemies", she was crass, grossly ambitious, ruthless, mean, and worst of all, a collaborator with the occupying forces (Italians and Germans). To her admirers, she was enormously talented, intelligent, basically good-hearted, and a worthy investment of time and energy. I came away from the book feeling that both views were essentially right. Petsalis-Diomidis should be congratulated for writing such a fascinating, insightful, scholarly book.

Despite the volumes of material that have been written about her, Maria Callas remains a fascinating enigma both as a person and as an artist. Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis has taken an important step in filling in some of the gaps that remain in our understanding by tracing in exhaustive detail the singer's early musical life in Greece, where she moved with her mother and sister in her early teens and remained until returning to the United States in 1945.

The perception that her Greek sojourn was a relatively unimportant preamble to her "real" career was in part propagated by Callas herself. Petsalis-Diomidis shows that the eight years she spent there were, on the contrary, an essential part of her musical development. It was in Athens that she received her first formal vocal training from Maria Trivella and Elvira de Hidalgo (the author is careful to give the former due credit in Callas' education), and sang her first leading roles onstage with the Athens Opera. Among her credits there were operas that would form the core of her later repertory, such as Tosca, and others that she would never sing again, such as Fidelio.

Perhaps even more fascinating than her musical history is the multitude of detail about Callas' personal life during this difficult time. Though he tries to be evenhanded, Petsalis-Diomidis is ultimately unsparing in his condemnation of Litsa, Callas' mother, whom he regards as an amoral and destructive parent. His collection of anecdotes about the hardships of war and the professional difficulties encountered by the young Callas make for fascinating reading. Occasionally his passion for research makes the narrative seem fussy and overburdened with detail (was it really necessary to give the diva's exact weight at various times in her career?), but in the main this carefully researched volume is an essential addition to the already voluminous collection of Callas writings. Credit must also be given to the fluent and readable English translation.

"The Unknown Callas" is uniquely devoted to Callas' early life as a child, student, and young professional in Athens during the 1930-1940s, and is without question, the finest biography of the singer ever. This powerful intimate portrait is essential to understanding the complex woman and musician of the climatic years in the 1950s and 1960s.

Petsalis-Diomidis researched this work like an archaeologist seeking every surviving document and artifact, but presents it in biographical form as a psychologist with a deep understanding of human nature. The whole is framed by discussions of the politics of the time and the harsh realities of daily life during the war. Though this is the work of a scholar, it is also that of an artist, where every care has been taken to paint a three-dimensional backdrop and recreate the atmosphere for each scene.

While much of the original research for this book consisted of interviewing every surviving person associated with the family, conservatory, neighborhoods, etc. in those years; the author never accepts statements mearly at face-value, always examining every angle. The search for truth is ever apparent, and though his devotion to Maria is unquestionable, he never gives her unearned benefit of doubt.

Beautifully typeset and printed with copious photographs, the book unfortunately does not include the many photographs of programs for school concerts and early opera performances that were featured in the original Greek version. Albeit many of these programs were in Greek, some were also printed in German and Italian during the war, and afterwards in English. Likewise, the index does not present proper names in their original Greek alphabet, so the original version is now a nice scholarly cross reference for this new English book.

But for those intimidated by scholarship, this book tells a moving story with just enough gossip to keep things interesting. For fans and detractors alike, it's a story of a girl with modest gifts and very modest beginnings, fighting to survive adolescence and make a name in the world of opera, a fight that would continue throughout her life.

I cannot imagine anyone ever writing a more thorough examination of the environment, causes and activities of juvenile street gangs in New York than Eric Schneider. Schneider, himself of lower-middle-class Manhattan origins, presents us, not with a vague cultural angle on the phenomenon, but an entire history of the changing economic and racial landscape of post-war New York and how street gangs were, in essence, a manifestation of that changing landscape. Gangs were a reaction to their underlying social circumstances and it is with this level of depth and rigour that Schneider has approached the subject.

He does cover aspects of street gangs beyond the historical/social such as descriptions of their own arcane culture and bebop-inspired lingo, the concepts of masculinity and the importance of honor to most boppers (an honor that appears to be impossibly out of reach to most working class male youth in mainstream society, both then and now). There's also a fine conclusion in which Schneider compares today's gangs to those back then and how the older gangs were (in his view, at least) a kind of de facto rebellion against mainstream society and values. Today's gangs, by contrast, are defined more as economic entities and micro-capitalist organizations than their honor- and turf-bound ancestors.

Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings is an excellent analysis of the history and culture of New York City at a particular time in it's development and this book is sure to enthrall anyone interested in youthful reprobates in general and those that inhabited New York in particular.

This book is an excellent treatise into one of the many fascinating eras of the NY underworld. The author takes you back to a dark time when Italian gangs fought Irish and German gangs, then united to fight Puerto Rican and Black Gangs, after which even Puerto Ricans were assimilated. This was a time when gangs were vicious but had not yet discovered heroine, crack cocaine, and machine guns; very interesting reading.

My grandparents emigrated from Italy
to East Harlem, a neighborhood described in the book.
I grew up on East 112st during 50's and 60's.
Not too many books have truely taken me back
as this one has.
I see Mr Schneider's work as highly accurate
written to keep the reader's interest.
An absolute must for anyone that has grown up
in the inner city during that era.

Gang life of the 40's and 50's is so often portrayed in popular culture (West Side Story, Capeman, The Wanderers etc) that it's almost a shock to read about the reality of the phenomena. "Vampires, Dragon's etc" convincingly traces the history of the gang in postwar New York (although there have been gangs in New York since pre-revolutionary days) attributing their modern evolution to a mixture of factors including the influence of the institutions of the Second World War, and ethnic conflicts cause by migration and immigration to the New York area. Fascinating too, is the minutiae of gang life from fashion notes (the alpine hat was favored gang headware for a time) to gang philosophy.

I found this memoir in one of my favorite bookstores and thought it would be good. The copy I found was very creased in the spine and the jacket looked worn as well. Inside I found pink highlighting, blue ink underlining and some handwritten notes in the margins. I thought the cover looked interesting..covers can (sometimes) tell you a lot about the book..and in this case that is very true. The author, Louise, captured my interest in the author Virginia Wolff--so that author goes on my list of authors and books to read. As memoirs are so good at doing I have gotten another whole set of books to read from reading just this one memoir. Memoirs have a way of doing that. :)

I got into this novel right away and couldn't put it down. I loved how the story kept jumping back and forth but that it all came together so well. Totally inspirational read in so many ways.

I have read a great many books on writing, and written a few myself. But Writing as a Way of Healing has gone straight to the top of my list of favorites, and I suspect that it will stay there for a very long time--perhaps for all time. But in the process of reading this book, I discovered I had to read the book that went before it, and now I want to tell you about both.

Louise DeSalvo has been teaching English and creative writing for nearly twenty years. The first in her working-class Italian family to graduate from college, she escaped a soul-deadening home life--a depressed mother, an angry father--by reading, going to the movies, and dating, dating, dating. It wasn't until the late 1980's, when she wrote a scholarly book about the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the life and work of Virginia Woolf that she began to come to terms with her own childhood traumas and the lingering shadows of her mother's death and her sister's suicide. She dealt with her pain, anxiety, and depression in a memoir called Vertigo (now available in paperback, published by Plume), in which she explored her own story. Vertigo isn't a pleasant book, or easy--it's about hidden pain and the depression and despair into which a woman can fall when she attempts to avoid self-knowledge. But it is a necessary book, for through it, DeSalvo learns that the process of life-writing is also the process of healing. What she discovered in Vertigo, and what she subsequently put to use in her own teaching, is the subject and object of Writing As a Way of Healing.

DeSalvo's section and chapter titles, by themselves, are helpful clues to the book's significance. The first section is called "Writing as a Way of Healing," and contains four chapters: Why Write, How Writing Can Help Us Heal, Writing as a Therapeutic Process, and Writing Pain, Writing Loss. Section Two is called "The Process/The Program," and has four chapters: The Healing Power of the Writing Process, Caring for Ourselves as We Write; and Stages of Growth I and II. The third section, "From Woundedness to Wholeness Through Writing" contains two chapters: Writing the Wounded Psyche and Writing the Wounded Body. The Epilogue is called "From Silence to Testimony." Each of the chapters contains suggestions for writing, examples (from such writers as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Isabel Allende, Djuna Barnes), discussion, and ideas--lots of ideas, so many ideas that you'll find yourself wanting to stop reading and start writing (something that DeSalvo herself, no doubt, would applaud).

DeSalvo refers extensively to a favorite researcher of mine--Dr. James Pennebaker--whose book Opening Up has been an important influence on my own understanding of the healing power of the writing process. When we use writing to explore traumatic or anxiety-provoking events in detail, together with the feelings that arise from those events, the writing process can help us to understand more clearly, cope in a more balanced way, and even feel better physically. Seen from this point of view, life-writing becomes a lifetime project, as we unravel the meanings of events and explore our responses to them. When we commit ourselves to this very important lifelong project--recognizing that we don't write our story once and for all and forget it!--we commit ourselves to a lifetime of learning, growing and healing.

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Louise DeSalvo's memoir captivates the reader. It offers an honest portrayal of depression's effects on her life, as well as the lives of her more clinically depressed mother and sister.

DeSalvo transforms the pain of her life into art. This is an inspirational story that will allow you a deeper look into the effect depression has had on this brilliant Virginia Woolf scholar.

The story here is about growing up in the far north. It begins in the 1950's when a con-artist father, Hank, leaves Edmonton with his pregnant wife and eventually passes himself off at the Indian school as a teacher. Hank settles his family in remote Fort Vermilion. The cast of loveable misfits struggle with the day-to-day harsh reality of being in Canada's third-poorest community. Winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Fiction

I loved every page of this book. The writing is excellent and the story flows really well. There are so many moving moments in this book that I shed a tear on a number of occassions. I also laughed my head off quite a bit. What more can one ask of a memoir? Well done Ian!

I read Ian Fergusons `biography of sorts` on a recent visit to Canada.The book was un-put-down-able,such well shaped characters,such wonderfully evoked scenery. Full of humour and pathos. When does the movie come out?

Written and narrated by author Ian Ferguson, Village Of The Small Houses: A Memoir Of Sorts is an hilarious and highly recommended account of growing up poor in the far north when in 1959, just ahead of the law, Ferguson's con-artist father Hank headed up north in a delapidated Mercury Zephyr with his pregnant wife, Louise. Hank got as far as isolated Fort Vermilion where he passed himself off as a teacher at the "Indian school" and settled his ever-expanding family in a house devoid of plumbing and electricity. The lively recounting of a scrappy childhood, Ferguson interweaves truth, tall-tale exag-geration, and a memorable case of growing up among lovable misfits in this 2 CD, 2 1/2 hour autobiographical account.

This book has got to be one of a kind! I read all of the SW Va history I can find and this is one of my two all time favorites. Funny, honest, sad, and from a different view than I've ever seen before. I absolutely loved it. I'm hoping the author will write about more experiences from that rich past. This is the type of history that "gets forgotten and lost". I can't say enough good things about this book.

I delighted in reading this book and found the author's description of his family and the "locals" to be as I experienced them while living and working in Bath County a few years in the mid-1970's. The elder Hirsh folk continue to be remembered as a notorious clan in Bath County. The author demonstrates, via his writing, that he is smart and respectful, with a great sense of humor. I laughed out loud numerous times while reading his book.

The author writes of an area of which I am very familiar. I grew up in Bath County and heard many of the stories that the author tells. Great photos.
There are three sections of the book were I laughed so hard I was crying and trying to catch my breath.

Really enjoyed this retrospective trip into the entirely different lives of three distinct groups of people inhabiting the same small town in Appalachia - or is it the same town?!. Certainly a very different one to each. The author recounts such wonderfully simple moments in these people's lives and evokes such emotion... though I laughed (out loud and in public!) for 3/4 of the book I also was outraged, saddened, and inspired by these people. Really enjoyed this read!

My friend turned me on to the idea of writing down my thoughts and dreams in journals to one day share with my future husband, and immediately I was hooked. I have since filled five journals to present to him on our wedding night.

This journal was the one that started it all. I bought two and filled both in about a year. It was a great way to start the habit of journaling not simply for myself but for another person to one day read and appreciate. The journal itself is beautiful and very romantic, with gorgeous pictures scattered throughout. The author also includes starter topics at the beginning of each page to help inspire you. Some women might like this; I personally did not. I followed the topics for the first journal and then just crossed them out and went with my own train of thought for the next one. For one thing, each prompt only gives you ONE page to fill, which isn't nearly enough space for the prolific writer, so you may end up crossing some out anyway. For another, the topics repeat themselves, which is tiring after a while.

Overall, though, this journal is highly recommended for any woman who wants to chronicle her dreams to eventually give to her "One". All I can say is pick up this journal, pick up a pen, open your heart chakra and let your creativity flow. Your future husband will one day thank you for this gift from the soul. (At least, I very much hope mine will!)

I am a total sap & love romance. I saw this book and thought this would be an amazing gift to someday give my husband on our wedding day.

I purchased the journal and was very pleased. There are beautiful wedding pictures on every few pages of a dress, couple holding hands, couple at the altar, etc. VERY BEAUTIFUL. It provides you just enough lines to express your innermost dreams and hopes. With prompts like:
*Today I prayed for you that...
*My hopes for our future are...
*Today I wanted to tell you...
*When I think about you I...

I can't put it down. I play some soft wedding music at night and light candles, pray, and write wherever I feel like writing. I plan on keeping this a secret from my boyfriend and giving it to him on our wedding day. It will make a beautiful gift to him, one that our children and families can look back on.

I love this journal, I'm actually planning on giving it to my future husband so he can read what God has done in my life. Highly recommended!!!

this book that rebecca st. james wrote gives you a lot of advice of the way God want sd you to live your life!!I recommend this book to people because a lot of people in this world need to relize that they need God to be happy after they die!!!Well enjoy this book as much as I did!!!

This text has numerous photographs and illustrations. The text is a little cumbersome for some readers. It does provide opportunities for enriching scientific vocabulary. As homeschoolers, our family is using this text together with several others. This definitely shouldn't be the text of choice for very small children, but it is ideal for older, more experienced readers/scientists.

This book was very useful when teaching my children about the weather. We learned lots of interesting things, and all from the perspective that God was in control of it all. They even explain El Nino. The pictures are colorful and wonderful. Anyone could benefit from using this book.

Almost everyone talks about the weather. But this is no run of the mill book on this topic. Oard, the author, is a professional meteorologist. He has fascinating insights on weather-related processes, and he also relates them to Biblical descriptions of weather phenomena.

Everyone talks about the weather, but this is no run of the mill discussion of the same. The author, a professional meteorologist, gives little-known insights about the weather, and also relates them to the Bible.

The book shows an amazign amount of knowledge and background concerning the subjects in the book. The Author does a great job of not only educating the reader on the findings of 30 years of research but teaches the reader what he has done. The use of non-participant observation in the book is flawless. I thought i learned a ton from the book till i read it again and learned so much more.

By far the most thorough and comprehensive text on the teen drug subculture. It's the only text I have seen that follows the subjects for an extended time period- in this case 30+ years. The depth of inside information on the subculture is second to none. You won't be disappointed.

Fr. Lowney has years of sociological real life experience all recorded in this book. I was shocked from the statistics of drug use/abuse, it certainly brought me out of "The Cave". Kudos for telling it how it is...

This book is thorough--covers 31 years of research, but presents a very human understanding of my generation. It combines the story of the young people with the author's own life journey (he even enters the priesthood during the course of his research). Brings back some great (and not so great--now that I think about them) memories!

I bought this book as a gift for my 9 year old grandson. His mom recommended it to me, and I bought it. I only glanced through it before mailing it to him in England. I cannot comment further on the editorial content. The outside appearance of the book was pleasing. The small size will make it easy to hold in a small hand. My grandson told me just the other day that he had started reading it, and had some questions. I referred him to his parents.

I recently purchased this book to go through with my 10 year old son. I have been so pleased with the dialoge provided in the book! It asks the questions kids really have and helps us parents give answers based on scripture! This book is a wonderful tool for using with your children as you talk frankly about sex and the consequences of going against what the bible teaches. I have already recommended this book to family members with children 8 to 11.

Even though my son is 10 years old now I have decided to go back and purchase the two previous books to this one to go through with him. They certainly couldn't hurt!!!!

There are two books prior to "What's the Big Deal" and we have used these wonderfully illustrated books with all three of our children. We followed the age suggestion and found that the subject matter was presented in a very natural and positive way. The main reason these books are such a blessing is that we need to tell our precious and innocent children the truth so that they are prepared mentally and emotionally when the "lies" inevitably come their way. Don't wait! Your child needs this healthy information.

If you're nervous about telling your child the "facts of life", this book will save you. It goes over all the stuff you might forget and like the book, I highly recommend reading it out loud with your child. Note: it has "parents" parts and "kids" parts broken down like a script/question-answer style; but it's not cheesie.